Flooding Archives

An apartment building is surrounded by floodwater on March 22nd, 2019, in Craig, Missouri.

The U.S. Is Bracing for Another Big Storm—and More Flooding

The storm will affect communities across several regions that are still struggling to recover from March's bomb cyclone.

Leah Dunlevy

Viewfinder: Cyclone Survivors in Mozambique

People scale a broken bridge, damaged during Cyclone Idai, to cross the Lucite River on March 26th, 2019, outside of Magaro, Mozambique.

Pacific Standard Staff

Following a bomb cyclone that dumped rain and melted snow across the Midwest, many sates—Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska, especially—have experienced flooding. Pictured here, floodwater covers Highway 2 on March 23rd, 2019, near Sidney, Iowa.

Viewfinder: Flooding in the Midwest

Following a bomb cyclone that dumped rain and melted snow across the Midwest, many sates, including Iowa, have experienced flooding.

Pacific Standard Staff

A home sits in floodwater on March 20th, 2019, in Hamburg, Iowa.

News in Brief

This Spring’s Predicted Flood Risks: An Essential Reading List

A report from NOAA warns that two-thirds of the lower 48 states are expected to face increased precipitation and flood risk through May.

Kelley Czajka

Viewfinder: Catastrophic Flooding in Indonesia

Indonesians watch as rescue workers dig through rubble looking for victims of the recent flash floods on March 19th, 2019, in Sentani, West Papua province, Indonesia.

Pacific Standard Staff

Viewfinder: Cyclone Idai’s Devastating Damage in Zimbabwe

Timber company workers stand stranded on a damaged road on March 18th, 2019, at Charter Estate, in Chimanimani, eastern Zimbabwe, after Cyclone Idai ripped across Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.

Pacific Standard Staff

The Damage From Flooding in the Midwest Is Still Mounting

As this water emergency quickly becomes a public-health crisis, here's what officials are reporting.

Emily Moon

Off the Map

In 2013, when FEMA redrew flood maps for the coast of Maine to account for more powerful hurricanes, some of the new high-risk zones were not only inaccurate, but expensive and difficult to correct. Wealthy vacation towns could easily foot the bill, protecting access to development dollars, but many struggling fishing villages could not.

Annie Avilés

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Venice and its lagoon is one of the most endangered World Heritage Sites in the Mediterranean region, due to storm surges and coastal erosion. In the course of this century, the ongoing rise in sea levels will further aggravate this danger.

Environment

Rising Sea Levels Are a Threat to World Heritage Sites

New research finds that rising sea levels due to climate change will put dozens of World Heritage Sites in the Mediterranean region at increased risk of flooding and erosion—threats many of the sites are already facing.

Mike Gaworecki